Drug gangs fight to rule the streets

Gun crime is on the increase in London as organised gangs routinely use weapons "in a show of strength" to dominate rivals, a police intelligence report says today.

Firearm offences are up 40 per cent in two years and increasing as Turkish criminals linked to the heroin trade, and West Indian gangs driving the crack cocaine market, seem oblivious to police.

The startling scale of crime in the capital is revealed in the most comprehensive analysis yet by the National Criminal Intelligence Service, which carries out sophisticated surveillance of the biggest criminal organisations. NCIS believes 400 organised gangs are operating in London and the South-East generating illegal profits topping £25 billion a year.

The spread of guns is demonstrated by changing attitudes within Turkish gangs. Traditionally possession of weapons was limited to gang leaders to avoid police attention, but now more are prepared to use firearms "to deal with threats from rivals, to avoid detection or apprehension and thereby protect themselves against long prison sentences for drug trafficking," the report warns.

NCIS's UK Threat Assessment warns that the drug gangs are more heavily armed than before and turning increasingly to semi and fully-automatic weapons "making the criminal world more volatile".

The warning comes days after rival Turkish and Albanian gangsters were involved in a daylight shoot-out in north London, where at least 15 shots were fired.

The report says the bulk of money generated by organised crime still comes from drug dealing, with an estimated 70 tonnes of heroin and cocaine reaching the UK each year and perhaps 26 million ecstasy tablets flooding the market.

The crack cocaine market appears to be growing and spreading to new areas the report warns, noting that ambitious UKbased criminals are improving their direct links to suppliers in Holland and Spain.

High-tech computer crime and paedophile offences, including on-line child abuse, are also highlighted as emerging threats. As well as the threat which major institutions face from computer hackers, the report says: "There is growing evidence that criminals are using high-tech tools, such as email and the internet, to communicate and arrange deals with other criminals."

Cyberspace has transformed the nature of paedophile crime by making it easier for solitary sex offenders to network. Incredibly, the report warns that "non-paedophile serious and organised criminals" have created some paedophile internet sites solely as money-making ventures.

Intelligence experts say gangs are increasingly diversifying in to crimes such as fraud, cigarette smuggling and illegal immigration to boost profits.

Criminals providing fake documents or secure transport to the West are now driving a people-trafficking trade which attempts to smuggle more than 150 million people across international borders every year. NCIS says: "As Western governments have become more concerned about immigration and have introduced more controls, so these opportunities for serious and organised criminals to exploit would-be migrants have increased."